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Start to run taps: town

Town residents who had frozen service lines last year are being urged to start running those taps A.S.A.P.

Operations and Facilities manager Travis Rob said this morning the town recently began getting reports of frozen lines.

“It is that time of the year,” he remarked, noting the town has received five reports this week of residential water lines being frozen, including three just yesterday.

Rob noted that in all cases, they're residents who have had frozen water lines before and historically have been “the first to freeze.”

He explained some properties' water line is more prone to freezing than others. For example, it isn't deep enough or is too close to a driveway or under a driveway.

“We had one freeze where they were working on a house and the contractor was driving over the service line; had been driving over it all winter,” said Rob.

“There's all sorts of reasons the frost could be getting down to that service.”

Those with a history of frozen water lines are asked to run a steady stream of water about half the width of a pencil—just enough so the water's always moving—from the nearest fixture (tap) where your service line comes into the home.

This should be cold water, not hot.

Meanwhile, ICI (industrial/commercial/institutional) water customers who are metered, and who have had a history of frozen service lines, should contact Public Works (274-9893) if they plan to “bleed” their lines.

This is so the town can advise billing that the customer has been given permission to run their water and take into account the extra water usage in order to avoid a bigger bill.

“Some of our big-time 'repeat offenders' in the commercial are already running their water and have talked to us,” said Rob.

“But if you are a commercial [customer] and have had problems in the past, give us a call and we can talk about—moving forward—what we want you to do and make sure the billing and everything gets taken care of,” he remarked.